Ice Festivals

Updated Jan. 13, 2004 11:59 p.m. ET

Winter's chill may bring on an epidemic of slippery sidewalks and frozen pipes -- but that's no reason not to embrace the season's hardest edge. There are events world-wide celebrating icy wonderlands in all their subzero glory. In Japan, international teams create elaborate sculptures that gleam in the sun and glow at night. In North America, ice climbers tackle frozen waterfalls with axes and picks. And there's a construction boom in hotels made out of ice: One of the first was in Sweden's Lapland, but it's now possible...